Commissioner of Indian Affairs 1886 “[…] Everything in the way of persuasion and argument having failed, it became necessary to visit the camps unexpectedly with a detachment of police, and seize such children as were proper and take them away to school, willing or unwilling. Some hurried their children off to the mountains or hid them away in camp, and the police had to chase and capture them like so many wild rabbits. This unusual proceeding created quite an outcry….

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Zitkála-Šá Sioux writer Zitkála-Šá recalls hiding under a bed while attending Carlisle Indian Industrial School to avoid having her braids cut off. “I remember being dragged out, though I resisted by kicking and scratching wildly. In spite of myself, I was carried downstairs and tied fast in a chair. I cried aloud, shaking my head all the while, until I felt the cold blades of the scissors against my neck, and heard them gnaw off one of my thick braids….

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Commissioner of Indian Affairs 1887 […] Ample provision ought to be made to accom­modate these 186 Indian children. We are told that the stability of the Government depends upon tho virtue and intelligence of the people, and that these are only the product of a healthful and intelligent education of the youth of the country. But higher results accrue to the lndian race by educating their children. Education cuts the cord which binds them to a pagan life, places the…

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